ronnie.

ronnie was a sandwich artist.

that is to say, she worked at subway.

but not just any subway, she was quick to tell anyone who would listen, the only subway in the state of wisconsin to win any award from HQ, let alone three years in a row. then she would slyly slip in, “i was promoted to manager three years ago, ya know.”

they didn’t know. which is not to say, they didn’t care, but the blue collar types in the small town of Two Rivers, weren’t quite convinced that this was an important distinction. after all, they saw ronnie right in there with the rest of ‘em, making sandwiches on the line day after day. it didn’t seem like she got any kind of special rights as manager.

which may have been true for anyone but ronnie. ronnie adored her extra responsibilities as manager. she cherished picking employee of the month to put on the plaque that hung inside the foyer of the restaurant. she was extremely fair, even in the face of adversity. for instance, this month, it was jerome green for the second month in a row. she knew this would hardly be seen as just and may even open her up to some unsavory accusations; Jerome had, for all intents and purposes, the best smile in two rivers. his light brown skin had identical dimples on each side. ronnie maintained to others that she never noticed, but kept quiet about her habit of leaving out extra dr. pepper syrup for him to take home at the end of each week. jerome loved his dr pepper. she knew she risked drawing attention to her inability to ignore his identical dimples, but she reasoned, he was the best worker. always on time, great with the customers, and truly took pride in creating a beautiful sandwich. she especially noticed the care with which he squirted on the dressing. always cautious because there’s a lot of people out there who don’t like too much dressing on a sandwich. jerome always held that squirt bottle tight but kept his eyes trained on the customer for the indication that he should stop. she especially admired this as she often found other subway restaurant locations to put on too much dressing.

with a deep breath, she reminded herself that leadership means you take a hit now and then and posted jerome’s picture up on the plaque. nobody knew how or had the money to engrave it anymore since HQ actually shut down the employee of the month program two years ago, so the pictures had to be taped up, the names sharpied on.

ronnie took her leadership real serious. “it’s your job to be unpopular.” she would tell herself when some of the high school kids got mad about the shifts they had been assigned. but she didn’t mind making waves. in fact, she often thought to herself, that was maybe the truest thing about who she was: ronnie the rulebreaker. she liked fancying herself as the town rebel in two rivers. she felt that that suited her just fine.

she had most recently done this at the local public library where she had taken a stand to say that she thought the public library should invest in more romantic literature. after all, she had reasoned, living in such a dark, cold place, the library had a civic obligation to provide inspiration, beauty, and joy for this town. she asserted that these were more contemporary struggles worth examining than the old, dusty volumes of poe or shakespeare.

it is worth mentioning that two rivers experiences excessive snowfall, below zero temperatures, and only a few full hours of daylight during the winter.

ronnie herself indulged in a good romance novel at least once a week, sometimes more, depending on how fast she could get through them at work, and found them to be the best and surest way to get through each day with a smile on her face. she had also learned quite a lot about medieval culture and government as the types of novels often feature the quivering members of kings and princes.

when asked about her own love life, ronnie dodged the question.

it is here that we will explain ronnie’s appearance. ronnie’s thick frame stands to be 5’9” with strawberry blonde hair. it is almost red, but with thick streaks of yellow running through it. she has fair skin from her father and small, slitted brown eyes from her mother. traces of freckles run down her arms and neck and all over her circular face. ronnie’s face was a near perfect circle with plump cheeks. it added to her air of maternal-ness. ronnie has a large stomach, protruding over her pants, which are never quite long enough to hit below her ankles.